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I wake up disoriented, partially thinking I dreamt the whole thing with the cloaked figure in the house. I realize, to my dismay, that I am wrong when a I lift my head to see someone in a black cloak sitting back to me in front of a burning fireplace. I jump up from the bed. “Who are you? I demand.
The figure stands but doesn’t face me. “My name is Devon.” His voice is thick with distaste.
Not what I meant. “What do you want?”
He pulls down the hood of the cloak, revealing a tanned neck and black hair. “I want nothing from you. I’m only doing my job.”
The door to the left of the fireplace opens and a large, muscled woman enters the room. Her eyes land on me and she smiles eerily. “You did find her. I knew she wasn’t dead.” The woman’s voice is ice cold and makes me feel as if bugs are crawling over my skin.
“Yes, ma’am. She is yours,” Devon says respectfully. It’s clear that he fears this knarly woman with her ragged brown hair and scarred face.
“You may leave us,” the lady instructs the cloaked man.
He then scurries for the door. I see the side of his face for a short moment. He’s only a boy. Maybe age fifteen or sixteen. I’m not sure why this surprises me so much, but it does. The woman closes the door behind her and then stares at me, inspecting me.
“Come,” she demands, curling her index finger in front of her. He nails are dirty and cracked.
I stand frozen in place. “What do you want?”
“I said come, human. Defy me and this will be a lot more painful than it has to be,” she thrills coldly.
“I said what do you want?” I snarl, my anger surprising me again. Why does everyone just have to push me around because I’m human?! I can’t live my life this way. I’d rather be dead than be treated so poorly. I stand my ground.
She hustles towards me, takes my forearm in her two hands and then twists my arm with enough strength that my arm buckles and skin tears. My bone snaps and the pain is so immense that I black out.
When I come to, I’m sitting in front of a mirror, my hair and makeup done to perfection, my arm healed and no longer in any pain. I look around the room to find I am alone. I try to get up but see that I am handcuffed to the damn chair. The room is decked out with mirrors lined on each wall. It looks like some sort of salon or dressing room.
“Good morning,” a soft voice greets me, and a tiny blood woman approaches from behind me. “I’m sorry about the cuffs. I have to do what I’m told or she will kill my daughter.”
“Who are you? What do you want?” I demand in a shaky voice. The memory of the pain of my arm breaking making me feel like puking. Pure fear, terror even consumes me. I find myself out of breath.
“My name is Cerisse. I have been put in charge of getting you ready for the auction this morning,” she admits, warmth in her tone.
“Au-auction?” I stutter.
Her already dreary features fall. “You don’t know why you’re here, do you?”
I shake my head and swallow, getting ready for what is surely terrible news.
“Madeya, the demon in charge here, she sends her minions out to fetch things worth a lot money and then she auctions them off,” she explains. “I’ve heard that you’re very important to her. I’m not to cause you any harm.”
“I’m human,” I plead, hoping she will believe me. “What does she want with me?”
“I know, dear, but I’ve overheard that your blood is not only human, that it’s special and rare. You are a delicacy. Demons, vampires especially will pay much for you.”
My heart falls into my abdomen. I’m about to be auctioned off to demons? No, this can’t be happening. Where is Kade?
Cerisse sprays some product over my curly locks and carefully picks through them, pinning some up strands up with pins. Struggling now would be no use.
“Where are we?” I ask timidly.
“Madeya’s home, my love.” She looks content and relaxed as she picks through my hair.
“What are you?” I wonder. I know she’s not a vampire by the way she moves, clumsier, less sure of herself.
“I am human,” she confesses, confirming my suspicion.
“Why are you here?” I ask incredulously.
She grimaces slightly but manages to keep a small smile on her face. “My grandfather was dying years ago, and my grandmother was approached by a demon, Madeya, who said she could save my grandpa in exchange for something worth her time. My grandma, though very religious, desperately accepted the offer before thinking it through and told Madeya she’d do anything for my grandpa’s health to return. Madeya took my mother, who was only a child, as payment to my grandma’s dismay. Well, I don’t even know if my grandma knows Madeya took her or what she thinks happened to her only daughter those years ago. All I know is that my mother was kidnapped by a demon in the middle of the night and brought here. Years later she met my father here and I and my three sisters were born.” The petite woman seems chatty, more than happy to share her story with me.
I gape and struggle to hide my appalled look. “And now what?” I urge curiously.
“Now my family is forever indebted to Madeya, even after death, our souls will be hers.”
And I thought I had it bad. “Why haven’t you tried to escape?”
“I have two daughters to protect. If I try to escape, Madeya will likely do something terrible to them. I have come to accept that this will be my life. It’s all I’ve known anyway. I was born here. It’s not so bad really.”
Easy for her to say. “Are we in Canada?”
She shakes her head, her brown hair rustling. “Florida.”
How long was I unconscious for? Obviously a long time if we’re in Florida. “How many people like you does Madeya have?”
“There’s a couple hundred of us.”
I gape. “How haven’t the authorities found you?”
She giggles. “Many of the strong demons have this many servants. We are extremely deep underground where humans would never find us. We are in the world inside of the human world.”
I can’t even comprehend this. That makes no sense whatsoever. It’s impossible. “Do you mean where it’s extremely hot?” I ask, not believing her for a second, but playing into it to distract myself. I need to calm down if I’m ever going to try to escape.
“We are in between the crust and core somewhere. Far deeper than humans have been able to drill. The heat has scared them away but if they kept going it would get a bit hotter and then it would cool down again. Compulsion goes a long way in the demon’s affect of human science. Humans only believe what the demons let them believe. Earth is the demon’s playground. If it weren’t for the Bryxx constantly making deals to keep humans in the dark, earth would be an entirely different place.”
I seem to learn a whole lot of something new every day.
“When is this auction?” I ask roughly, deciding to focus on the main problem at hand here.
She shrugs. “Any minute now it will begin. They must wait for all the attendees to arrive. It’s a very prestigious auction, only those with lots of money may attend.”
I swallow. “I’m going to die,” I whisper, not meaning to say it out loud.
The woman grimaces and nibbles her bottom lip. “I’m sorry. I wish I could help you, but even trying to escape here would only end up in both our deaths, and I can’t risk my family you must understand. Remember, your soul will go on, the demons do not own it, they need permission to use a soul.”
I sigh in frustration and I am surprised by how calm I am about this. Is it because I’ve been preparing to die, because I’ve resigned myself to this fate, or because I truly don’t care if I die anymore. Am I no longer afraid of death? No, that’s unlike me. I’m deep in shock.
I sit in silence, unable to do anything about my situation and my thoughts drift to Kade. Where is he now? Does he know where I am?
“That boy who brought me here,” I begin, taking a breath. “He’s a demon?”
Cerisse shakes her head slowly. “The cloaked boy? No, his name is Devon. He is half demon, half Bryxx. His father, a demon, raped his Bryxx mother and he was born. The Bryxx were going to kill both mother and child, so the mother made a deal with one of the high demons. Her soul and her son’s, for their safety. She is now a servant as I am and the boy as well, but because of his mixed blood, he is very strong, the only of his kind. It is rare for such a bond to spawn a child. He is Madeya’s personal servant. He does all her dirty work.”
“He’s just a kid,” I murmur to myself..
Cerisse shrugs. “He can change his appearance. I’ve seen him do it, but the face he shows around Madeya is that of a young boy. He is two thousand years old, he is truly far from a boy.”
This shocks me, but I don’t have long to remain this state. A big burly man enters the room from a door on the left. “She’s up,” he grunts.
Cerisse’s relaxed facade turns to panic as she rushes to undo my cuffs. It’s clear that she is not a huge fan of the man.
Once she’s finished with my cuffs, she pulls me up. “I’m sorry,” she whispers into my ear.
The big man rolls his eyes and then pulls me by my shirt and drags me out the door. I want to lash out but what good would it do? He pulls me down a dimly lit hallway. I take in how there truly is no natural light down here. Could we really be underground? Then we ascend a set of stairs. He looks me up and down. “Look pretty, human. Walk through those curtains and greet Madeya with a million-dollar smile or you’ll regret it.”
Sheesh. No wonder Cerisse seemed frightened of the man.
I hesitate, and he slams a hand into the back of my spine between my shoulder blades. I wince and stumble forward through the black curtains. I am faced by Madeya standing a few feet in front of me smiling icily. She beckons me with a single finger as she did before. I’m too distracted by everything to be angry this time. In front of Madeya, the ground drops a few feet. We are on a stage. Below the stage are hundreds of men and women in black cloaks like Devon wore when he took me. All of them stand straight up at attention. I can’t see their faces and this only unsettles me further. Bright lights shine from above, burning my eyes.
“Here is our main attraction of the night, folks!” Madeya shouts. “The bidding will begin at one hundred million for this fine piece, you’ve read the pamphlets, you’ve seen the invitations. She’s a young, beautiful human with Bryxx ancestry, enough that the entirety of her blood can cure a vampire, a few ounces of it can diminish a vampire’s thirst almost completely for days under normal circumstances. Beings as she are quite rare indeed. We haven’t had one here for auction in nearly a hundred years in fact, so don’t take this chance lightly.”
There are a few light murmurs from the crowd of people before an auctioneer begins rattling off numbers. The cloaked figures begin raising their numbered signs. I don’t have enough time to comprehend what’s going on. I hear a few numbers but this is no regular auction. The auctioneer speaks so fast that I can’t even comprehend his words. The signs rise and fall so quickly that they’re blurs.
Finally, the blurring signs lose in quantity and it seems to be down to only three bidders as far as I can tell. Then eventually it falls to two. I hear the number one billion and nearly faint. There’s no way I heard that right. They are willing to pay a billion dollars for my blood? Why wouldn’t Madeya just keep me for herself and sell my damn blood?
“Sold! To bidder one hundred twenty-six for one point two billion dollars pending payment! You can collect at the left of the stage!” Madeya screeches in excitement and clasps her hands together tightly. “Now let’s move on to our next treat, shall we?”
The burly man pushes me forward and towards a set of stairs leading off the stage. A cloaked man, I’m guessing bidder one hundred twenty-six, makes his way through a secure gate with a security guard looking man, almost as burly as the guy pulling me along. I can’t even imagine how heavy security is here. I just sold for one point two billion dollars after all. I glance around and see many burly men and women in uniforms, all eyeing the guests carefully as they pace around.
Guests on the other side of the gate lose interest in the current auction as it begins and instead their eyes fall on me. A cloaked figure rushes at the gate, slamming into it, and then a second does the same as I get closer. Then a third. The big men and women rush and incapacitate the flocks of cloaked people banging into the gate. I can only guess that these are vampires losing their minds over my blood.
Bidder one hundred twenty-six approaches me and to my surprise doesn’t attack me. He inspects me and then wanders to a booth with the words ‘Payments Here’. He’s there for only a few moments while I shake next to the rude man who’s been dragging me around. The winning bidder then approaches us and the man next to me hands me off to him with a slight shove. Then I am herded through a different gate, burly man leading my buyer and me into a long hallway. We walk in silence until we get to two metal doors. An elevator? The leader pushes a button and the doors open with a ding that’s too pleasant to be in such a gloomy place. Definitely an elevator. Inside, stand four large men, more security I assume.
My buyer pushes me towards the elevator and I don’t hesitate to get inside. Once the door closes behind us, an announcement in a female voice plays, ‘Please make sure all humans are properly restrained before going up.’ What?
My buyer folds down a metal chair from the wall and then forces me to sit down unit. Then the person pulls three heavy duty straps across my torso like seatbelts. Apparently content with my restraints, the buyer then pushes the up button.
I gasp when the small box begins going up. My stomach feels like it’s being pushed down into my abdomen. The speed is insane as we sky rocket upwards. The others in the elevator look bored, like this is nothing new to them. A timer on the wall counts down from twenty minutes. This is going to last twenty fricken minutes? I already feel as though I’m going to vomit.
The buyer then hands me a plastic type bag as if knowing the affects this thing is having on me. I try to thank he or she but instead I end up vomiting violently into the plastic bag. My stomach and throat ache when only stomach acid comes up. When was the last time I ate anything? I dry heave and dry heave until my body finally gives up, feeling beyond weak. I rest my sweating head against the cold metal elevator wall and close my eyes, trying to think of anything else. This seems to help, though not much.
When the elevator makes a sharp dinging sound and then slows down until it stops, I am more than relieved. The cloaked person undoes my restraints and then pulls me up from the chair. I’m too weak to stand so instead the cloaked figure easily lifts me into their arms.
I have to keep my eyes closed as he walks with me quickly following the security. I peek my eyes open as we climb a long set of stairs and then walk through a hotel lobby type of place. Heads snap in our direction and building security holds back vampires who lunge towards us, fangs bared, eyes glowing red. Our small group leaves the hotel and enters a very large underground parking garage. We jump into a large black Escalade and my buyer sets me down on the bench seat next to him.
The driver of the vehicle is a well-muscled female with curly brown hair. “Where to?” she asks emotionlessly and hands the cloaked person a tablet.
He or she takes it and types in an address before handing it back. From this, I gather that we are in Miami.
The Escalade lurches forwards quickly and leaves the parking garage after the woman scans a card at the exit. I am more than relieved when I see sunlight. Could Cerisse have been telling the truth after all? Could there be an entire demon world underground?
We speed through busy streets in silence until we stop at the airport. The cloaked person pulls me from the Escalade towards a private plane. They push me down into a seat and buckle my seatbelt for me before sitting across the aisle from me.
I feel like I should have something to say, something to ask, but I can’t manage to say anything. Instead, I begin crying quietly, not wanting to piss off the person now in charge of my life.
The plane takes off eventually and I abandon my crying to look outside at the ocean as we fly over it. I’ve never seen the ocean and somehow, though not reasonable, this calms me. As we turn and begin flying over Florida, I focus back on the plane interior. I’m startled when I discover that there is a second cloaked figure in the plane with us, sitting two rows in front of me.
Over the loud speaker a deep male voice says, “We’re high enough now, sir.”
A motion to my left causes me to look over at the cloaked person next to me as they remove the cloak. I see the stranger entirely now, a man in black slacks, a black button-down dress shirt and neatly trimmed brown hair. He fixes the cuffs of his shirt and runs his hands down his attire, smoothing out any wrinkles.
Then a whoosh if air causes me to glance down the aisle as the other now uncloaked figure rushes towards me. “May, oh my god.” Two hands land on my shoulders. “Are you alright?”
It takes me more than a few moments for it to register that Kade is standing a few feet away from me. My tears return, this time in sobs, only they aren’t tears of fright but tears of happiness. I’m so relieved to see him.
He unbuckles my seatbelt swiftly and lifts me up into his arms, pulling me against him tightly. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” he demands, looking over me. “I’m so sorry, May, I’m so so sorry.”
I bury my head into his shoulder, not caring that I’m ruining his shirt with tears. I want to assure him that I’m okay, but I can’t get the words out.
“She’s in shock, Kade, but she’s not physically harmed. They make sure their product is in perfect condition upon sale,” the other man bites out, sounding unimpressed. I nearly forgot he was here.
Kade brushes my curly hair with his fingers and rests his forehead against the top of my head. “You’re okay now, May. You’re safe. This is Henry, I told you about him. I owe him my life for saving yours today.”
I quiet my sobs to look up at Henry, Kade’s trusted friend, the man who has now saved both my life and Kade’s. “Thank you,” I say through tear filled eyes.
I see a blurry Henry nod once promptly. “Anything for Kade, he’d have done it for me. He doesn’t ask for favors often.”
“How much?” Kade asks Henry, sounding extremely agitated.
“She went for one point two billion,” Henry states darkly.
A hiss of air escapes Kade. “I will transfer you the money when we land,” Kade assures him and pulls me in tighter like he’s scared to let go of me.
Henry chuckles deeply. “No need. We both know I don’t need the money nor would I ever ask you to pay me back, son. Payment enough is seeing you this happy.”
Kade finally releases me and motions for me to sit down. He sits next to me. We sit in silence for a few minutes until he says, “Did they hurt you?”
I want to tell him about how they twisted my arm and I blacked out from the pain, but I decide to keep that to myself, not wanting to further his anger or hurt. “Not physically,” I lie. It could’ve been a lot worse. I could be dead right now. “How did you find me?”
“When you were taken, I first tried tracking you but once you were put on a plane, I lost all trace of you. I called Henry in a panic and he said he’d just gotten an invite to your auction. It was luck really.”
“Why were you invited to a demon auction if you’re sided with the Bryxx?” I ask Henry, not understanding.
Henry scoffs. “Most demon trading and auctioning, most demon business in general, is done in secret for obvious reasons. We each have an identity number and those numbers are ranked by our wealth, age, etc. We don’t share our numbers with anyone. No one sees our faces or knows our true names. They have no idea who I am, only that I am very old and very wealthy, and so I am sent invitations to these high-end events.”
“But how do you get invited if they don’t have any personal information about you?” I ask.
He smiles welcomingly. “These days it’s done by email, but before internet, it was a monthly auction for elites. You’d get the next date at the end of each auction.”
“But how do they know you’re not someone who just heard about the thing and showed up?” I ask, not sure why I care so much, maybe I just need the distraction.
“There is a password you give with your number upon entry. You would never share your password or your number with anyone as it is a criminal offence met with a death sentence. It’s not hard to guess who is in the elite group. If they’re sickly rich then they’re probably in it, but because no one knows I, Henry am a demon, no one would suspect me as one of them.”
I want to ask how he hasn’t been found out by either the Bryxx or the demons, but I decide against it. I understand how the Bryxx haven’t figured it out, they can’t sense vampires, but the vampires can sense other vampires.
“Because they don’t expect me to be a vampire, I smell of Bryxx since I live amongst them, and I try to keep my distance from demons in general. Oh, and I’m very practiced with compulsion.” He answers my unspoken question.
“Very practiced,” Kade clarifies. “The best I’ve ever seen.”
I nod, not completely understanding but not sure what else to do. How strong could his compulsion possibly be?
“May is immune to most compulsion we’ve learnt. Unless she’s being compelled to do something part of her already wants to do and she doesn’t fight against it.” Kade shares with Henry.
Henry doesn’t appear surprised. “It’s rare but some humans are very strong-willed and they are extremely hard to persuade.”
“I don’t see myself as strong willed,” I admit and shrug.
Henry chuckles loudly. “Maybe not in some respects, but I am willing to bet that you believe your mind and your actions are yours and yours only. If someone were to try and change your thoughts and poke around in your mind, you’d push them out, maybe not consciously but subconsciously, even if it were easier to just give in.”
I can’t argue with him there. The thought of someone messing with my mind makes me plain angry.